11:57 am, September 27, 2023
A dealership group from the West Midlands took part in a special 100-mile drive to highlight how easy it is to live with an EV as well as raise money to plant trees to offset emissions.
Green 4 Motor Company – which has Mazda dealerships in Coventry, Leamington and Stourbridge – went from the Braintree Gridserve charging station to the one in Norwich to celebrate World EV Day.
The EnviroDrive event involved rally-style navigating without a sat nav or anything else digital.
Marketing assistant Charlotte West was in the driving seat concentrating on the efficiency of the Mazda MX-30 they were using, with marketing executive George Barker as the navigator ensuring they took the correct route, accompanied by marketing manager David Thompson.
Barker told Car Dealer: ‘We’ve never done anything for World EV Day and we felt that it was a day that gets passed by and as a car dealership we should be one of the people singing the praises of EVs and raising awareness.
‘We went on the World EV Day website and found the EnviroDrive event. Unfortunately, there wasn’t one in the West Midlands, which is why we travelled to Braintree to do it.
‘We were the only dealership taking part but it was really great to meet and chat to other owners and advocates for electric cars – people who are living with them every single day – and get their opinions on the different cars they’d had and the ones they were currently driving.’
He added: ‘It was a really fun day. We stopped off at Rattlesden Airfield, which was a bomber base for the US air force during the second world war, and saw a glider take off, which was interesting and relevant to what we were doing.
‘We also had the idea what could we tie into it as well and thought we could support a charity. So as it was 100 miles we found a charity that would plant a tree for £1. We wanted to raise £1 for every mile and we managed to raise £100.
‘The MX-30 was convenient because it charged really quickly, it was really straightforward to charge and it made the journey on one charge.’
The leisurely drive took some three hours in all, including breaks, with the Green 4 Motor Company team arriving in Norwich first.
The money raised, which is being matched by Green 4 Motor Company, will go to Just One Tree.
Pictured at top are Charlotte West and George Barker
